How to Make a Pokémon-Style Game With AI — Free Monster-Catching RPG Tutorial

Choose the game you can finish

Your first milestone: One forest, three original creatures, one companion, two abilities, weakening/capture, collection selection and a validated save. Finish this slice before multiplying maps, characters or mechanics.

2D rpg

Top-down world and sprite creatures with a separate battle screen. The easiest route for a first collection RPG and mobile controls.

MAKE MY OWN 2D GAME

2.5D rpg

A 3D or layered isometric world with original sprite/3D creatures. Keep logical battle state independent from presentation.

MAKE MY OWN 2.5D GAME

3D rpg

Third-person exploration and 3D creatures, with readable battle transitions. Budget rigging, collision and camera work separately from capture logic.

MAKE MY OWN 3D GAME

See what original creators have built

Step by step: build Lantern Wilds

These are an original implementation plan with explicit checks, not claims that every proposed engine integration has already been executed.

1. STEP 1

   Design three creatures with roles

   Give each original species a name, silhouette, habitat, base health and two abilities. One individual instance holds a unique ID, current health and experience; species data must not hold shared mutable health.

   Expected result: Three different companions can be collected without shared-state bugs.

   Try this check: Damage one individual and confirm another of the same species is unchanged.

   

2. STEP 2

   Build exploration first

   Use a Godot top-down movement example and one authored forest. Add run as a default speed or a held action, interact, pause, a joystick and large touch buttons. Keep paths and encounter zones visually distinct.

   Expected result: The player can navigate a small original forest.

   Try this check: Test touch cancellation, menu focus, narrow paths and movement at different frame rates.

   Controls → state → feedback

   Test touch cancellation, menu focus, narrow paths and movement at different frame rates.

   Acceptance check · run this in your own project
3. STEP 3

   Enter encounters through one state owner

   Use exploration, encounter intro, player choice, resolution and result states. Freeze world movement during battle. Roll encounters only on valid movement/zone events and apply a cooldown after leaving.

   Expected result: A battle begins once and returns safely to exploration.

   Try this check: Hold movement into a battle and restart twice: no duplicate encounter or stuck input.

   

4. STEP 4

   Resolve abilities consistently

   Choose a move, select a valid target, calculate speed order and resolve health once. Show feedback before advancing the state. Clamp health and prevent a defeated creature from acting.

   Expected result: A two-ability battle is predictable and readable.

   Try this check: Try equal speed, zero health, an invalid target and a rapid double tap.

   Validate → change once → show result

   Try equal speed, zero health, an invalid target and a rapid double tap.

   Acceptance check · run this in your own project
5. STEP 5

   Capture and select companions

   Allow capture only in a wild encounter with a capsule available. Consume one capsule once. Make lower health help capture, use a seeded RNG for tests and give success a new individual ID. Collection selection must preserve health.

   Expected result: Captures grow the collection without duplicating rewards.

   Try this check: Force success and failure in tests; reload after selecting a wounded companion.

   

6. STEP 6

   Persist progression and polish the forest

   Save collection instances, selected ID, inventory, XP and quest IDs. Validate all IDs and clamp counts on load. Add original idle/run/attack frames, local sound, status text and image-independent labels.

   Expected result: One complete explore, battle, capture and resume loop.

   Try this check: Load an older or corrupt save; verify collection selection and rewards after restart.

   Save → reload → compare

   Load an older or corrupt save; verify collection selection and rewards after restart.

   Acceptance check · run this in your own project

Free code, assets and systems you can reuse

Godot supplies physics, input mapping, UI controls, animation tools, navigation and file APIs. Its demos illustrate individual systems. Reuse those before asking ChatGPT, Claude Code or Codex to recreate them; AI still has to adapt your game-specific rules. Work avoided is not a measured credit-saving percentage.

Animation, UI, audio, inventory and saving

Keep one art scale and test one imported model or sprite first. Reuse engine animation states and native UI focus. Use original sound synthesis or an exact cleared audio pack. Define inventory/collection IDs and transaction rules as game data; a visual pack cannot implement those rules. Godot’s saving tutorial supplies a file-workflow starting point; add schema validation, migrations and error handling.

Godot saving tutorial ↗ · Animation integration guide · Add one code or asset resource

ScreenshotFree

Godot Engine contributors · Original screenshot ↗ · CC BY 4.0 ↗. Resized and compressed.

Godot Engine contributors

Godot

Free, open-source game editor for 2D and 3D projects, with scene, animation and interface tools.

MITEngine

Official licence ↗Licensing summary, not legal advice. Check the exact edition and use.

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Creator previewFree

Kenney

UI Pack

Interface artwork for buttons, panels and sliders.

CC0-1.0Asset pack

Official licence ↗Licensing summary, not legal advice. Check the exact edition and use.

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ScreenshotFree

Shomy · Original screenshot ↗ · CC BY 4.0 ↗. Resized and compressed.

Shomy

QuestSystem · Godot quests

Godot quest add-on for objectives, quest-state pools and localisation. Publisher marks version2.0.2 unstable.

MITCode library

Official licence ↗Licensing summary, not legal advice. Check the exact edition and use.

See previews & details

Optional paid assets are for an evidenced gap such as extra animation actions or a consistent environment set. Keep the free baseline beside the paid option. Browse free resources · Compare optional paid resources. Check current prices at the creator; no commission-based ranking or invented improvement percentage.

Licensing summary, not legal advice. Before selling or publishing, check exact official terms. Finished-game use, reselling raw files and including files in a source/template product are separate permissions; art, audio, trademarks and promotional media have separate rights.

COPY PROMPT TO YOUR AI

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Review the prompt, then copy it or select its text manually.

Read the complete guide and all three prompts as Markdown →

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